Is the human race getting more or less intelligent?

Question

I don't mean book smarts. I mean does the human race have more or less common sense than it did 100 years ago.

Answer 1

The human race is becoming more aware, since we are becoming more aware our common sense intelligence is increasing. As for general intelligence, I guess we are just specializing our intelligence in different areas. I'd be lousy at stalking and killing a buffalo with a spear, but I am much more skilled at utilizing a computer than my paleolithic counterpart.

Answer 2

I agree with with Popidad and Milady (2 others that answered this questions). He/She said that people are becoming more sufficiant in memorizing, than thinking (math). One example is a game show I was watching, 1 VS 100. If you havn't seen it, its where 101 people answer questions, 1 person being the main guy, and every time one of the other 100 people make a mistake on a question, he/she gets $. Well, on one of the questions was a simple multiplacation question, and about 20 people got knocked out. However, earlier in the game, there was a question about a movie, which apsoultely NO ONE got wrong.

Still, I do think that the human intelligence has perhaps gone down slightly. One question I remember went something along the lines of this: "What part of a fireplace is also the name of a layer of the earth? a)hearth b)mantle c)(i don't remember). The answer was b)mantle, and for someone who isn't a big fan of those kind of questions, I found it extremely easy, but I also found that about 25 people got it wrong.

This is not to say I could be wrong, but no offense: Fewer and fewer people seem to be able to hold more than one thought in their head, and simple math problems that simply could be solved with common sense, now seem to require teaching with about 10 step formulas. I guess you could say that logic has gone down (math + science) and memory has gone up, or perhaps just stayed the same.

Answer 3

we are growing to be smarter as we've extra helpful and extra superior technologies. even however, eduction structures fail to have interaction little ones so they don't prefer to income. and that i think of organic selection has stopped which will have weeded them out if it grow to be not stopped by a bunch of benefit structures that save the lazy and uninteresting fed and able to reproduce passing on thier genes (which will impact intelligence) and their strategies-set to discovering the place they have not got the thirst for wisdom. E.G. in Britain we've point crossing the place the barrier is going all throughout the time of the two lanes on the two ingredient of track to stop human beings employing over. formerly even however they only coated the lane human beings drove in yet some idiots questioning they have been clever drove around the barrier in basic terms to verify why the barrier grow to be there, because of the fact the prepare crashed into them.

Answer 4

The human race is no more nor less intelligent than before. In any era there were great thinkers, wise people, philosphers who expanded the knowledge of their time. Remember intelligence is not access to the information we have today, but making good use of it. I believe that thorughout time people made use if information and expanded the wealth of knowledge.

As a college professor, I find that today's students are more able to memorize and less able to think than students twenty years ago.

Answer 5

yes in the human race is becoming more aware in the impact it has on the earth. less in the way it treats people at least the way certain segments of it treat old people they have no awareness of the consequences of their actions. when everyone is valued humanity will have fullfilled it's potential . one source of annoyence is measuring peoples intelligence by iq test outmoded perhaps now but people are still judged by apprearance and put down and even if aperson does not want to feel superior to someone it is so ingrained that they can help it but can get rid of but with a struggle.people need to uderstand how insensitive they are being but they refuse to admit they have a problem i am talking about their attitudes to old people. also they put people into metaphorical compartments like Mentally ill and think they know what this means they think it means a person is not aware of what is being said about them that they have no feelings or intelligence also they use this as a term of insult or judge someone without being professionals. you see scenes in movies where they jeer at people and show a lack of understanding of the way to talk to people. they call people names in movies like senile old morons. this could be saidto be a lack of sensitivity but reflects on intelligence as well everyone grows old do they want to be made fun of. seems pointless to me .

Answer 6

I don't know. I think we're gaining and losing at the same time. New ideas, new experiences, all this new stuff, but at the same time, we seem to be getting more modern, and in that, we fall apart at the seams. Everytime we lose some thing, we gain something equally important.

Answer 7

depends on what context you are asking??

and I know you said not "BOOK SMARTS".

I feel people, in general, are not using their COMMON SENSE; but that is personal opinion. I have no clue whether it is because they truly lack the skills or they choose not to use the skills.

Answer 8

Judging by the language skills (or lack thereof) on Yahoo Answers, I would say LESS intelligent. I know darn well that I would never have gotten away with the lack of grammar skills that modern kids manifest today.

Answer 9

yes in making life easier we are. but the more knowledge we gainthe less intelligent we become because all we care about is our own gain and we kill the enviroment we live in. we could be our own destuction.

Answer 10

Well some of us are getting smarter but they are the ones who are on an intellectual down fall